Casey D

The team that got hammered by Denver is the clear class? Don't seem at all clear to me.

I was joking-- My Cousin Vinny reference. Allen has tons of football left in him at 27. Look at Brady and Rodgers.

He's 27. His biological clock, and the Bills window of opportunity are-- stomp stomp stomp-- ticking. 😁

That's so last week. Anything anybody ever did outside the last 2 hours is meaningless..

That's the hope. But the hope tank is getting dry, and we need to see some real progress in the next two weeks or it is time to hit the links.

And the Kincaid fumble was a killer

Post hoc, maybe. Ex ante, Von was a free agent and Brown likely would have cost a Bills 1st and 2nd, as Titans got 18th overall and 3rd from Eagles.

Perhaps not turning the ball over would be a good place to start. Teams that are -2 in turnovers lose 84% of NFL games. To be in that 16% on the road against maybe the hottest team in the NFL is nigh on impossible. Clean that up and results will come IMO.

Agree. Have to win Denver NYJ and Pats at home. That's 8. Then 2 wins against Phil, KC LAC Dallas Miami. If they can go 2-3 in those 5, they will be playoff ready. But right now it is baby steps. Need to start looking like a real playoff team. Starts with not losing the turnover battle. -2 at Bengals just won't win many games.

Probably couldn't hurt. 😁

No need to be so bitter. They are not soft IMO-- right now they are not playing their best. Maybe they can fix it, maybe not, I don't know as I cannot tell the future. The situation is not your fault and you have zero chance of making it better. . Walk away for a while and take a deep breath and then see what happens.

It likely won't come down to tiebreakers. There almost certainly will not be 4 teams in AFC non-division winners. Bills won't make it with 9 wins due to tiebreakers however.

10-7 will make the playoffs-- any combination. 95% chance on NYT predictor. Like last year some 9 win teams will get wild card slots, like Miami and NYG last year.

If you think that, you should make a large wager. No way they have a top 10 pick. Zero. Then you should forget about the team for now and do something more enjoyable than investing emotional effort on an underperforming mediocre team. Life is too short.

I am not optimistic per se, just stating facts. Even if they improve, KC and Eagles are likely losses on the road. I am just choosing for now not to be as unhappy as you are about the team. If you feel that pessimistic, then just tune the team out for a while, see the results, and if your prognosis is correct you can stay tuned out. No need to let something like football make you feel bad needlessly. Because if I do not see wins and improvements the next two weeks, I will make myself turn to other pursuits. Should not let entertainment make you feel bad. I agree to an extent. Something is not right with this team right now. I do not know if it is fixable or something more deep rooted. No one outside the team itself does. I am willing to see.

Totally agree. Things can change a lot between now and January. Seems to me if they can turn this around a bit then the final 5 game stretch will be pre-playoffs playoffs. But it remains to be seen if they can change or if this is a lost season.

5-4 with eight games to play. Not where we thought this team would be. Not where anybody thought they would be. So where do the Bills go from here. First, the overwhelming emotions that the Bills are done because they lost to Cincinnati on the road are overblown. Given how all teams are playing so far in 2023, this looked like the toughest game left on the schedule, and most figured they would lose. So it's not this game, but the overall play the last five weeks. And the one game the Bills surely would like to have back is the Pats loss-- that was a killer. Other than that, losing to Jax in London given how the NFL set up that game was also surely a loss too. So here they are, 5-4, the current 8 seed and out of the playoffs, looking up at teams like Pittsburgh and Cleveland. So what is next. The Bills have an opportunity now to reset and reemerge in the playoff discussion. Or this could end up being a lost season, and a reboot will be required to get this team to the upper echelons in 2024 and 2025. Allen is not going anywhere at 27, and the great Bills teams of the early 1990s began after Kelly turned 30. And with the QB, you will always be good, if not great. So no window is closing IMO overall. So the Bills have two beatable opponents coming up, and a good chance to experiment on offense and to try and find themselves. They get to do it without crowd noise-- which I think impacted the up-tempo offense in Cincinnati (Allen could not stand at the line and bark out signals as he did against Tampa). But the Bills can try and get this down at home in the next two weeks, and then try to take it on the road where communication is more difficult. Anyway, since this is all just entertainment and not life and death, I am going to just enjoy the ride for now and see what happens. We have a lot of strong players on this team, and now we get to see what they are made of in a crisis. Because it is a crisis. The next two weeks are must win games, and they need to get their offensive act together and playing Denver first, who Miami beat with 70 points, is a good place to start. Then a huge step up in class against a really good Jets defense. We will learn if they are learning. Either they will regroup and find their game, or they won't. I'm all in for now, but the next two weeks will be the crucible for the gauntlet that is the last six weeks of the season. It will either be a blast, of I can look to do other things than hanging on what the Bills do during the holidays. Truly a season on the brink IMO.

But you say there is a chance. 🙂

Yeah, it is mystifying how the Bills rank 5th in both points per game and yards per game. It feels much worse. I guess a few good games pulls up the averages.

1994?

I did, but I agree that the performance, especially running the ball, leaves a lot to be desired. OLs everywhere are not great however, and it is hard to have All-Pros at every position. I think you and I agree, it's just that they thought they had fixed it but they have not. Well they paid McGovern like he was good, and most reviews I saw of his play for Dallas were good. The line seemed fine early on, but has regressed, like most of the team.

They did address it with McGovern and Torrence.

Agree. And the simple fact is that in NFL games, when you are minus 2 in turnovers you lose 84% of the time. They are certainly not good enough right now to be in that 16% that wins when -2.

Fact is that winning the Division is likely to be the easiest way in. That means simply winning the same number of games as the Dolphins until the rematch last game of season. That will make that game essentially the first round of the playoffs. Miami has Cowboys and Ravens and @Jets on schedule. If they lose two, that means the bills can have 6 losses going into that game. Three and we go to 7. Must win games are Broncos Pats and Jets at home. Toss up games are Dallas at home, and at Chargers. At KC and Philly are losses. Need to win toss up games, or steal a loss game. NYT playoff calculator projects if we beat Pats Jets and Broncos at home, and a win against Dolphins, 73% playoff chance. If the Bills beat either Dallas or the Chargers too, playoff chances are 90% plus. As bad as things feel right now, there is still time to turn this thing around as in 2021.

Two turnovers to none. That explains the game. Can't do that against a good team. Losing by 6 is not bad with that.